For the Power, Privilege, and the Purse project I conducted a large amount of research for my panel’s topic of Islamophobia in order to be fully prepared for the discussion. I produced an Islamophobia infographic that showed a couple of statistics and gave a basic description of Islamophobia as well as a n essay that argued about how the American dream is more real if you’re white than if you’re brown.I watched multiple videos and interviews from both sides of the argument so i watched individuals such as Reza Aslan and Bill Maher who both have very different views on Islam. Because of the timing of the events, I also really familiarized myself with the Paris attacks and compared them to the Beirut attacks and looked into the fact that one got so much worldwide recognition and grief from different world leaders while the other didn’t. I looked at the the history that America has of creating the perfect terrorist and then letting them loose starting with Osama Bin Laden and George Bush involving ISIS. I also researched a good amount of how America so easily puts the blame of something onto different nations and I read about how America is sneaky in always keeping a good relationship with a country that they get resources from. I did some research on Syrian refugees and how they are no longer welcomed in to a number of states in America and how that is helping or hurting these refugees and us. I also discovered how the conditions of the refugee camps were very rough and these individuals are put into positions of nonstop labor and abuse.
Memorable moments for me from the symposium include the fact that there were a group of people in the Islamophobia panel who had very opposing views from ours so I would say that the conversation got pretty heated within the first fifteen minutes. We spoke a little bit about the Syrian Refugees as well as the history behind Islam, and America’s role in all of this. It was memorable to see the audience’s reaction to when one of the parents posed the question “How come when 9/11 happened and we knew that the individuals flying the planes were Saudis, but the US never went on to bomb and attack Saudi Arabia?” The answer was, of course, answered by the same person who asked it which was “Of course they won’t because we get precious resources from countries like Saudi Arabia like oil.”
<Video or snippet of Islamophobia panel>
Memorable moments for me from the symposium include the fact that there were a group of people in the Islamophobia panel who had very opposing views from ours so I would say that the conversation got pretty heated within the first fifteen minutes. We spoke a little bit about the Syrian Refugees as well as the history behind Islam, and America’s role in all of this. It was memorable to see the audience’s reaction to when one of the parents posed the question “How come when 9/11 happened and we knew that the individuals flying the planes were Saudis, but the US never went on to bomb and attack Saudi Arabia?” The answer was, of course, answered by the same person who asked it which was “Of course they won’t because we get precious resources from countries like Saudi Arabia like oil.”
<Video or snippet of Islamophobia panel>